The Rainbow Coven
by blainedreamer
Summary: After getting beaten up at his school's Sadie Hawkins dance, Blaine Anderson finds out he's not actually alone in his situation. It's why he's so quick to help Kurt Hummel out when they first meet; it's only fair he extends the same kindness his friends showed him.


Blaine Anderson was lying in a hospital bed.

Four of his closest friends stood around him, knees or thighs pressing against the edge of the mattress as if keeping him in place.

"We should extend an invitation to him." Natalie Parker's mouth was twisted into a frown.

"Anthony?" Jesse St. James gripped Blaine's left hand.

"We already tried once." Abigail Peters glanced out the window behind her at the nurses and doctors rushing around, too busy to care about the details.

"You know the rules." Nora Adams shook her head.

The door opened and the four turned to look at the new guest. Lisa Anderson smiled softly when she saw them. "I know he would be glad to see you all," she said quietly, eyes dancing over each one of them. "It means a lot to us that you came to visit him."

They took the hint, Natalie leaving last after pressing a soft kiss to the bandage above Blaine's right eye. She tucked her dark brown hair behind her ear, silently hoping for him to wake up soon.

Standing outside, they assessed the situation. Abigail stuffed her hand in her coat pocket and pulled out a cigarette and match book and lit up as they ambled towards Jesse's car. "Diner?"

A unspoken agreement ran through the group and fifteen minutes later, they sat in the corner booth in the back, blankly staring at menus.

"I hate this." Nora let her menu drop, glumly taking a sip of her soda. "I hate that he's lying in there, comatose, with assholes for parents."

"Pretty sure his mom became frosty when she saw me there." Jesse shook his head.

"Pretty sure it's because her vagina's stapled shut." Natalie rolled her eyes.

"Pretty sure he doesn't want to touch his parents' assholes." Abigail shook her hair out of its ponytail.

"Pretty sure-"

"Nat?"

"Nora?"

"Not in the mood."

The waitress came by and took their orders.

"It's a sad day when you're not in the mood for breakfast food." Abigail rested her chin in her hand and aimlessly stirred the ice cubes around in her makeshift iced coffee.

"It's a sad day when your best friend is lying in a hospital."

"I thought we weren't playing that game right now." Jesse pulled his phone out of his pocket.

Natalie looked affronted. "I didn't do that."

"Babe." Abigail grinned. "Shut up."

"Make me."

Abigail raised an eyebrow, her grin sliding into a smirk.

Silence fell until Jesse bristled, his eyes glued to the door of the diner, and Nora poked him in the shoulder.

"What's wrong?"

"Rachel Berry."

The three girls turned to look. Abigail frowned.

"What's so bad about her?" Nora took a sip of her soda.

"McKinley thought they could start a show choir and be, like, amazing at it or something." Abigail preened under Jesse's nod of approval. "Their Sectionals was a deaf choir and juvenile delinquents who collectively stole their set list because they've got a bitch cheer coach out to get them and she leaked the list. They still won with brand-new, last-minute shit, which shows you how show choir is now judged worse than elite gymnastics." She paused. "I spend too much time reading gossip blogs online."

"We're still going to use their public school outfits to sweep the floor at Regionals. It's amusing that they think they can beat us." Jesse smirked, pocketing his phone again.

"Anyway, Rachel Berry is their lead singer and she's so cliched Broadway, Streisand cringes on a daily basis." Abigail rolled her eyes. "She's an annoying little fuck and Shelby's daughter to boot. Not that she knows it."

"You didn't hear that from us." Jesse ducked his head as two cheerleaders from Rachel Berry's group floated past to the restroom, pinkies interlocked.

"I wish the Warblers had that kind of drama." Natalie sighed. "It's boring down at little, old CCDS, and they're our only source of true entertainment."

"Because you all sleep together?" Nora bumped her elbow into Natalie's.

"It's just the field hockey team!" Natalie's cheeks flushed red. "Though Wes was particularly cute during my experimenting phase thing. Now he's just hellbent on making Council Leader and too much determination is kind of off-turning."

Abigail eyes sparkled. "Thank God I'm a lazy bitch then."

"So Nora, what does McKinley think of them?" Jesse's body was now purposely turned towards their group and not Rachel Berry's table across the diner.

They paused to let the waitress give them their food.

"Slushied Rachel is kind of hot." Nora buttered her toast as if speaking about the weather outside (snowy, cold, awful to her).

Jesse snorted.

"Seriously. She gets hit with grape a lot and I just want to lick it all off." She took a bite and chewed thoughtfully.

"So who's inviting Blaine?" Natalie looked around the group.

Abigail raised her hand. "I've known him the longest. I'll do it."

Nora frowned. "He's going to be so pissed that we've left him out of this for so long."

"Blame Jesse." Natalie gave the boy a mock glare across the table. "It was his idea to start a gay Fight Club."

Jesse scoffed. "He'll get over it. He always does."

* * *

"How's my favorite teddy bear in the whole wide world doing?" Abigail asked, slipping into Blaine's hospital room with a stuffed bear on her hip.

Blaine groaned. "It figures that you would baby-talk me as soon as I regain coherency after waking up from a coma."

"Just making sure you haven't sustained any permanent brain damage," she chirped, dropping on the edge of his bed and bouncing a little. "For you."

"For me," Blaine echoed, smiling at the old joke and stuffed bear.

"How're you doing? I mean, I know it's a stupid question, but I still feel slightly obligated to ask seeing as you're, y'know-"

"All laid up?" Blaine supplied with a soft smile.

Tears pricked Abigail's eyes. It wasn't fair that they were here, that she was skipping another day of school to wait by his bedside for him to get better, for a sign that this whole thing was a dream. Her eyes traced his bandages and casts and braces. The gashes on his forehead were large enough for the white medical tape to cover his bushy eyebrows. She closed her eyes, but then memories of that night came flashing back to her and she forced them back open.

"Don't say that," she whispered. "You didn't put yourself here."

Blaine was silent. Underneath the tape, Abigail knew worry was creasing his forehead. And then: "This isn't your fault, Abby."

"I know it's not." She took Blaine's hand - his middle fingers taped together, an IV stuck into the back - and stared down at it.

"I should've joined Vocal Adrenaline."

That got a laugh out of her. A bubble of happiness wound up and burst in her chest, a flow of warmth entering her system. "You'd hate it. You're a good singer, but it's way too cutthroat for you. It's like if you played football," she explained, falling back onto metaphors for explanation as she was prone to do, "and you went to a division one school. You're better off transferring to a division two or three school so you can be the star while having fun."

"Speaking of transferring."

She looked up.

"My parents talked to Natalie's about Crawford and Dalton. They actually enforce their zero-tolerance bullying policy and while the Warblers never win their Sectionals, it'd give me a group to sing with. The academics are about on par with Carmel's." Blaine's eyes shone. Her heart broke. With some exceptions, everyone lived in a dog-eat-dog world at Carmel. For an arts magnet school, it was kind of surprising that certain kinds of people weren't totally accepted. Natalie only transferred to Crawford halfway through her and Abigail's freshman year because the football team didn't like that they couldn't turn the lesbian straight. Vocal Adrenaline was the safe haven for those outside Carmel's norm of rich, heterosexual, white kids. Even if it was singing and dancing, they brought the school prestige only the volleyball team could match and were relatively untouchable, no matter what others thought of them. Blaine had almost joined only to back out of his audition at the last minute out of nerves.

She knows Dalton and a lot of boys that attend. Even if Blaine's excitement hadn't given him away, she knew he was going to be okay there.

"That's great!" She affectionately squeezed his thumb.

The light faded a little when he added, "I'll have to repeat tenth grade."

"Why?"

"Recovery and physical therapy are going to take me out of school for a while, and since Dalton's only letting me start next year as a sophomore because of that, my parents are pulling me out for the rest of the year. They don't want me going back there."

"Understandable." She nodded. "You weren't doing so hot in math anyway. At least you'll get a chance to start over."

"Yeah," he said, and Abigail caught the hint because the Anderson family had a way of subtly clipping conversations short when they didn't like something that the group had grown familiar with.

"Hey, listen. When you get out of here, the guys and I want a hang-out night with you. Is that cool?"

Blaine's look made Abigail momentarily feel like a child.

A knock on the door was heard, followed by the sound of someone entering the room.

"Little brother," Cooper said smoothly, winking at Abigail.

"I'll see you tomorrow," she murmured, kissing Blaine on the temple and sliding out of the room.


End file.
